In analyzing the site and the surrounding service economy, Alshamali and Savelyeva determined to create a magnetizing social connector. Their building aggregates these identified amenities and utilizes them to punctuate an aggressive, yet deferential, structure.

As opposed to Chandler and Smith’s “City Deck” project, the horizontal neighborhoods of that scheme are, in this project, rendered vertically as a congregation of dwellings surrounding openings in the building façade. These voids each border individual social programs such as a gym, a hairdresser and barber shop, a playground, a library, and an incubator workspace, in an effort to gather residents at catalytic nodes.

Formally, the building defers to the existing Smith towers by leaning, thus allowing natural daylight into the court created by its own new presence, while also maintaining the view corridors back to the river to those residents already ensconced in the tower blocks. This “lean” is articulated by offset slabs, which themselves offer a series of outdoor balconies for individual homes as well as shared garden spaces for the common use of the building.